New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor

Thirteen thousand feet deep, on the cold, dark desert of the Pacific Ocean seafloor, scientists have discovered new sponges living on rock nodules targeted for deep-sea mining.

The tiny sponges, named Plenaster craigi partly for the multitude of stars that make up their backbones, belong in a genus of their own and are the most abundant organism found to date that live on the nodules.

“When I examined Plenaster for the first time, I was amazed by its unusual, simple skeleton,” said Swee-Cheng Lim, a sponge taxonomist from National University of Singapore and lead author of a paper on the discovery, published in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

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If XiaoZhi is too difficult for you to say, just call me X. I am a freelance science reporter currently based in Massachusetts. I enjoy covering energy, climate, environment and basic science. I'm originally from Singapore.

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